(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/30/2010) –- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced today that an Internet blog containing posts that advocated burning mosques, making false bomb threats implicating Muslims, desecrating Muslim graves, and that recommended the “proper way to shoot a muslim [sic]” has been deleted by its hosting company.

CAIR said visitors to “Bootislam's Blog,” hosted by WordPress.com, now see the message:"bootislam.wordpress.com is no longer available. This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service."

Yesterday, CAIR called on American Muslims and other people of conscience to contact WordPress.com to ask that the Internet hosting company drop the blog for violating its Terms of Service, which prohibit blogs that "contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities."

“We thank all those who took the time to contact Wordpress.com to express their concerns about the incitement to violence found on the blog,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “We also thank Wordpress.com for taking swift and decisive action in this case."

"This disturbing incident and its successful resolution is a reminder of the importance of CAIR's work," said Awad.

He added that CAIR has reported the content of the blog to the FBI.

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(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/31/10) –- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on members of the American Muslim and interfaith communities to pray for the speedy recovery of Imam Mahdi Bray, a well-known and respected national Muslim leader who suffered a stroke yesterday and remains in critical condition in a Virginia hospital.

"We pray that God grants brother Mahdi a speedy recovery and we ask members of the Muslim community and those he has worked with in the interfaith community to offer similar supplications," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. "We hope that he returns quickly to his tireless efforts promoting justice and interfaith understanding."

Imam Bray serves as executive director of the Muslim American Society's MAS Freedom (MASF) based in Washington, D.C. He also serves on the boards of the Interfaith Alliance, America's largest interfaith organization, and the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice. Imam Bray is also a national co-convener of Religions for Peace – USA.

A Tulsa man is charged with a hate crime for allegedly sending an intimidating letter to the Islamic Peace Academy and posting a video online showing him desecrating a Quran, court records show.

Jesse Quinn Harrison, 33, was charged Tuesday with one count each of transmitting a threatening letter and malicious intimidation or harassment - what Oklahoma statutes call a hate crime.

According to the charges, Harrison is accused of sending a nine-page letter to the Islamic Peace Academy in Tulsa "with the intent to intimidate."

He also made a video that shows him "smearing pork on the Quran and an Islamic religious figure and grilling those items," according to the charge. . .

Muneer Awad, executive director of the Oklahoma Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he didn't know any details of the case, but he said more hostile rhetoric toward Islam has recently worked its way into the mainstream.

"The rhetoric has not helped," Awad said. "It has forced people to take an extreme stance."

However, he said that although any threat should be taken seriously, cases such as Harrison's are on the fringe.

Many non-Muslims in Oklahoma have good relationships with the Muslim community, he said.

"Whenever instances like this come up, we always have friends from the non-Muslim community to help," Awad said.

A preliminary hearing for a Twin Falls man charged with malicious harassment was postponed Thursday in order to allow the defendant time to find an attorney.

John Christopher Larsen, 42, appeared as his own defense in Twin Falls County5th District Court to request time to find a lawyer, claiming he was denied a public defender.

Larsen was charged with felony harassment on Dec. 23 after he allegedly threatened a Muslim woman at the Twin Falls Walmart on Dec. 22. Witnesses told police that they heard Larsen yelling at the woman, saying Muslims didn't belong in the U.S., and threatening her with a gun he said he was carrying under his shirt. (More)

A Brookfield man filed two lawsuits today against the Forest Preserve District of Cook County alleging that his wife was denied access to the Cermak Family Aquatic Center in 2009 because she was wearing traditional Muslim dress.

Mahmoud Yaqub went to the aquatic center, which has a wading area, fountains and sprinklers, with his wife and two children on Aug. 16, 2009, according to the lawsuits filed against the Forest Preserve District of Cook County in Cook County Circuit Court.

In the lawsuit, Yaqub alleges that his wife was dressed in a hijab, which is a traditional Muslim headscarf, and a jibab, which is a loose-fitting garment. The family had arrived at the ticket booth to buy their entrance tickets when the cashier told them they couldn't go inside "because of your wife's outfit," the lawsuit states.

Yaqub, who is represented by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that he tried to explain that neither he nor his wife would be swimming, but the cashier continued to insist that swimwear must be worn into the center. (More)

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/29/2010) –- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on American Muslims and other people of conscience to contactWordPress.com to ask that the Internet hosting company drop a blog containing posts that advocate burning mosques, making false bomb threats implicating Muslims, desecrating Muslim graves, and recommending the “proper way to shoot a muslim [sic].”

Refer to the http://bootislam.wordpress.com blog and quote the incitements to violence referenced in this alert. Ask that Wordpress.com delete the blog for violations of its “Terms of Service” agreement.

CAIR said a post on “Bootislam's Blog,” hosted by WordPress.com, urges readers to make false airline bomb threats for “all flights to hajji lands” and recommends that the threats be made from “different payphone [sic] always on busy street. . .Rubber gloves at phone booth.”

In a post headlined “Burning Mosques – A lovely idea,” the blog’s author writes: “What else could an infidel want? Watching your local mosque, or, any mosque for that matter burning should gladden our hearts. I sincerely hope the 911 mosque joins that parade. Maybe we should get stickers ‘Beautify America – Burn a mosque!’”

One comment on that post states: “There was a nice attempt to burn a mosque in Oregon – after the FBI sting. Perhaps we will see more of this in the future. Let us pray.”

A Bootislam post headlined “Training in desecrating muslim [sic] graves” offers advice on “Locating muslim [sic] graves to desecrate,” “Supplies you will need to acquire to proceed” and “The proper way to desecrate a muslim [sic] grave.”

In a post titled “The proper way to shoot a muslim [sic],” Bootislam writes: “Drill into the bullet tip a short way, and place a mixture. [sic] of pork fat and full strength bugkiller [sic] concentrate. . .Even if you only scratch him, the bug killer will make his descent to hell slow and painful, but he will surely go. The pork fat assures that he will go to muslim [sic] hell for sure.”

“This blog goes far beyond the promotion of anti-Muslim hate to advocate specific acts of violence targeting ordinary Muslims,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.“This is not a matter of free speech, which we defend on a daily basis, but involves incitement to the kind of violence American Muslims have experienced.

He noted that recent hate incidents targeting American Muslims include the arrest of an Idaho man for threatening a Muslim woman while she was shopping, an apparently bias-motivated attack on a Muslim woman outside an Ohio mosque, the harassment of a Muslim woman in Oregon, an arson attack on an Oregon mosque, and reports that mosques in Michigan and Ohio have been receiving hate mail.

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/28/2010) –- A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization is urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Defense Department (DoD) not to use anti-Muslim extremists to train counterterrorism officials.

That request by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) comes following a Washington Post investigative report on post-9/11 government surveillance, which stated: "Seeking to learn more about Islam and terrorism, some law enforcement agencieshave hired as trainers self-described experts whose extremist views on Islam and terrorism are considered inaccurate and counterproductive by the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies."

CAIR made its requests in letters to DHS Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Last week, the Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization sent a similar request to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

The Post also noted that the Center for Security Policy, an extremist right-wing think tank – headed by Frank Gaffney Jr. -- that recently published an inflammatory report targeting American Muslims, has spoken to many law enforcement forums.

According to the Post: "Government terrorism experts call the views expressed in the center's book inaccurate and counterproductive."

"It is important that the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security have access to accurate and balanced information about Islam and Muslims,"said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.

Awad added that a coalition of Muslim, Sikh, Asian-American, and other civil liberties groups recently called on FBI Director Robert Mueller to explain why Robert Spencer, a leader of an anti-Islam hate group, was invited to train state and federal law enforcementofficers.

Earlier this year, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) acknowledged that an anti-Islam film should not have been used in training offered to security personnel by thatmilitary law enforcement agency.

CAIR contacted NCIS after receiving a report that a three-day NCIS surveillance detection course at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., included the viewing of a propagandistic anti-Islam film.

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

When ACT! for America's Jacksonville chapter began attacking a local Muslim scholar this year, it might have appeared to be the isolated action of a fringe group.

Far from it.

Over the past year, ACT has engaged in similar skirmishes across the country that have raised the group's profile, its membership and its revenue.

It describes itself as educating concerned citizens and exposing the threat of radical Islamic terrorists they believe are multiplying on American soil. When the local chapter protested the appointment of University of North Florida professor Parvez Ahmed to the city's Human Rights Commission, they claimed he had ties to terrorist organizations, despite his written record of condemning violence and terrorism.

But the episode is also one of many reasons ACT has come under increasing scrutiny from critics. They say that at best, the group is promoting misinformation among an American public still largely uninformed about Islam, and at worst, it is exploiting people's worst fears to propagate bigotry and hate speech against Muslims.

Its detractors include Muslim civil rights groups as well as scholars and even the Southern Poverty Law Center, all of which say the group denigrates all Muslims, not just extremists. (More)

ACT! for America leader Brigitte Gabriel claims an American Muslim "cannot be a loyal citizen" and that Islam is the "real enemy." She once told the Australian Jewish News: "Every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim." She also claimed that "Islamo-fascism is a politically-correct word. . .it's the vehicle for Islam. . .Islam is the problem."

When asked whether Americans should "resist Muslims who want to seek political office in this nation," Gabriel said: "Absolutely. If a Muslim who has -- who is -- a practicing Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be the word of Allah, who abides by Islam, who goes to mosque and prays every Friday, who prays five times a day -- this practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America."

Gabriel stated: "America and the West are doomed to failure in this war unless they stand up and identify the real enemy: Islam."

Along with her stated desire to have Muslims barred from public office, Gabriel has also claimed that Arabs "have no soul" and that Muslims worship "something they call 'Allah,' which is very different from the God we believe [in]."

Earlier this year, a person staffing an ACT! for America information table in Florida was caught on video bragging that he desecrated the Quran, Islam's revealed text, and urinates in the washing stations Muslims use to perform their ritual ablutions (wudu) for prayer.

The Times Editorial Board today lists the people and groups it believes are the biggest Difference Makers for 2010.

This is the sixth year the board has offered its picks. The idea is to cite people and groups who have made a difference in Central Minnesota the past year. . .

CAIR

The Minnesota Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which asked the U.S. Department of Education to investigate reports of harassment and discrimination against Muslim students at Apollo, Technical and Owatonna high schools.

ONE-LINER: A social mobile app which allows you to get answers and similarities about Islam,Christianity and Judaism to build religious tolerance between their followers. . .

Julia Shearson, Executive Director of the Cleveland chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says, "It's an enjoyable game. I think it will bring people together."

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WEIGHING UNTAPPED MARKET AGAINST TERROR FEARS - TOPCompanies find opportunity in marketing to U.S. Muslims, but some face ugly reaction

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — In the ballroom of an upscale hotel a short train ride from New York, advertisers, food industry executives and market researchers mingled — the men in dark suits, the women in headscarves and Western dress. Chocolates made according toIslamic dietary laws were placed at each table. (More